I sure hope so. The notion that there still are not free states when it comes to cannabis is just beyond ridiculous.
Canadian here.
It’s been fully legal for… 5 years? We haven’t fallen apart yet!
There’s some people working on that, but they aren’t the stoner type.
god i wish we would do the same across europe
Last year Michigan received about 290 million in weed taxes, around 90 went to municipalities and county governments, 100 million to schools, and 100 million to roads.
It’s crazy to me how cheap it is. Like, they could double the taxes and it would still feel incredibly affordable when compared to alcohol.
What are the prices in Michigan? One of the complaints in Colorado is that the prices (for those without red cards, anyway) were set so high that some people were still resorting to the black market.
If you shop around you can get joints for one dollar. Way cheaper than the black market
If no one is being harmed and all parties have the access to information to know enough about whether or not to consent, and if all parties do consent.
Nothing wrong is being done.
How long have Democrats been saying this now?
No democratic as a presidential nominee has publicly stated they would fully legalize it until now as far as I am aware. Biden has made moves to reschedule, but he has not said something like this
Bernie didn’t say he’d legalize weed? I’ve got a tough time believing that tbh
Edit: I’m a dumbass lol “nominee” does not in fact mean “candidate” 😂
Ok. What’s her plan?
So far all we know is she might do more than nothing
She might, yes. I’d still like to see a plan. Hopefully one will be forthcoming soon.
I’m guessing there will be no plan
Perhaps. I’m notoriously pessimistic about Democrats actually wanting to do things that don’t involve capitulating to Republicans, but she just announced it. I’ll give her some time to put out a plan before assuming it’s just an empty campaign promise like Biden’s was.
It’s getting to where if democrats keep milking this issue, they are going to snatch defeat from jaws of victory by pussyfooting around a highly popular issue.
I definitely would not become a republican just because of this issue, but there are many people who see politics as silly football teams. I can see Republicans winning and election because “bro, the republicans support weeeeeeeeed, man”
It’s baffling how uninformed so many large groups of people are when it comes to news and politics
I think to say something broadly popular with the voting base and then forget about it after the election. Decent plan TBH.
Same is true with health care, minimum wage, sick leave for workers, there are numerous issues that large majority’s on both sides support that nothing will be done about because billionaires and corporate donors. She is a neoliberal after all.
There’s a couple of different ways she could do it. She could start the descheduling process (doable with existing law, but DEA slow it down like they are with Biden trying to move it to schedule 3). Or if there’s a democratic trifecta, she could also push for legislation to legalize it
She did push for legislation like that in 2018 when she was a senator
I’m aware of the avenues by which it could be legalized. I asked what Harris’ plan is. If she hasn’t released one yet, fine. She only just announced it. But I would like some specifics from her campaign at some point, because Biden’s efforts have been disappointing to everyone who considers Biden to be fallible.
Biden never said he supported full legalization as far as I am aware, so it’s not surprising he didn’t go as far as he could.
She just made the announcement for the first time in this campaign, so not stated that yet, but she has pushed for legalization via legislation in the past as a senator and called for faster action for the DEA on rescheduling as VP
In other areas, Walz and Harris have already given plans for passing legislation to make banking access easier for legal states and helping veterans get access to medical marijuana in the VA
Wait a second, when someone said Biden should do more you replied that Biden can’t do more,
But now you are saying Biden didn’t do more because he didn’t want to.
Something’s not adding up.
I think dems are using this issue the same as they did with abortion.
That’s why women are dying right now in many states, because politicians are dangling carrots with no intention of actually doing their jobs
The president can order agencies to reschedule it, which makes it defacto legal in a lot of states, and means federal employees in states where it’s legal can use, including military.
She should do that asap, because the fight to actually legalize is a lot harder.
I don’t want to see her say it needs to be legalized and then refuse to take any step thats not the hardest
Biden already started that process to move it to schedule 3. It’s been moving through slowly but it’s got a public hearing on December 2nd
The public comments were overwhelmingly in favor of full deschedule/legalization, but all he’s pushing for is reschedule to 3, which means they’ll probably go to 2 because fuck you that’s why. Hopefully Harris can lean into it a little harder than Biden has.
As a senator Harris introduced bills that would’ve fully legalized it. Meanwhile I don’t think Biden ever publicly said he wanted full legalization
I think there’s pretty good odds she would go further than Biden in executive action alone
Rescheduling is a lot more complicated than that. The president can not just wave a wand and make it legal. Congress could pass a law doing so, but they are not going to do that. The other way is via the Controlled Substances Act which is, to put it mildly, is a cluster fuck.
In a nutshell, administrative rescheduling begins when an actor—the Secretary of Health and Human Services or an outside interested party—files a petition with the Attorney General or he initiates the process himself. The Attorney General forwards the request to the HHS Secretary asking for a scientific and medical evaluation and recommendation, as specified by 23 USC 811(b-c). HHS, via the Food and Drug Administration conducts an assessment and returns a recommendation to the Attorney General “in a timely manner.” The Attorney General, often through the Drug Enforcement Administration, conducts its own concurrent and independent review of the evidence in order to determine whether a drug should be scheduled, rescheduled, or removed from control entirely—depending on the initial request in the petition.
If the Attorney General finds sufficient evidence that a change in scheduling is warranted he then initiates the first stages of a standard rulemaking process, consistent with the Administrative Procedures Act. During rulemaking and consistent with Executive Order 12866, if the White House—through the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of information and Regulatory Affairs—determines the rule to be “significant,” it will conduct a regulatory review of the proposed rule—a very likely outcome given the criteria in the EO.
FYI, Biden already initiated this process to reschedule marijuana in 2022. At this point, it has been reviewed and the Attorney General has submitted a rule change to the DEA. They will have a public comment period which they will no doubt drag out as long as possible. If approved, marijuana will be reclassified at the same level as steroids (schedule III). It is disappointing that Biden only requested changing the schedule rather than descheduling it all together. Not ideal, but a hell of a lot better than now.
So technically, the president could order the people he is in charge of to deschedule the drug and to do it immediately by everyone agreeing that the change is not significant.
If they refuse he could just keep firing people until someone agrees.
Nope, the president doesn’t have the legal authority to give that order. He has the legal authority to order them to consider the question, which is the process that’s going on.
Right but he he has the power to fire them, or order someone else to fire them.
The law requires certain time frames for comment periods and he cannot just ignore those. He also cannot just fire anyone he wants. That is one of the things Project 2025 includes. Giving the president to fire any federal employee at will is a bad idea.
The only immediate thing he might do is issue an executive order making Marijuana a very low priority offense and telling DoJ to direct limited enforcement and prosecution resources elswhere.
Well I’m sure the persons in question will be highly motivated to follow through and expedite the process with seal team six accompanying them to work every day
Biden promised the same thing and then didn’t do shit. They clearly like to dangle this carrot without acting on it so they can continue to leverage it for votes.
You should learn how the drug schedule system works. The president can’t just snap his fingers and make it legal.
Then why are they even talking about it? They haven’t the power to do anything about it, so stop claiming you will do it.
Oh wait! Making empty promises fools idiots into voting for them.
Decriminalization is not the same as legalization. In terms of legalization, he only supported legalization for medical marijuana which is the process he started. He actually pledged to move it to schedule 2 but has started the process to move it to schedule 3. That process is getting closer for what it’s worth. The DEA has really dragged it out but it’s nearly at the end with the public hearing in December
From the source that politico links to
he will support the legalization of cannabis for medical purposes
[…]
reschedule cannabis as a schedule II drug so researchers can study its positive and negative impacts.
Copying my comment from elsewhere
Yea it’s still full of “is going to” and “process getting closer” stuff. He had 4 full years and didn’t do anything until halfway through his last year specifically so the next election cycle could continue to have a carrot to dangle. That was 3 more years of people having their lives permanently ruined.
The existing law outlines the complicated process. Biden cannot do it instantly. Here’s an overview of the process that’s already been done so far
Now the rule has been proposed so we’re at the end of that graph. That’s what I mean when I say we’re close. Here’s the actual rule making procedure to do the rescheduling
Additionally, it’s worth noting that earlier, dem senate leader was also perusing a legislative path until it was clear they couldn’t get the votes. Hence later executive action
Did you even read the previous comment
Works every time!! I’m 40, I thought legalization was right around the corner 20 years ago.
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Same. It’s been legal here for so long that when I visit others in non-legal states it’s always so weird that I can’t just go buy some.
I can’t do edibles. I took 10 mg once and my heart-rate was 155 just sitting on the couch. Never again.
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I can assure you that this was not an enjoyable experience.
if it is fully legalized at the federal level it has the potential to put a gigantic dent in the the housing crisis
Please explain more.
We build houses…
… with weed
How?
Harris is from Oakland. She gets it. There are nice dispensaries everywhere in Oakland. Even in very family-friendly or affluent parts of town.
You do understand she is the one that was jailing black men on possession charges because it made her look good, right?
If you could do it as president, just make Joe do it immediately. We might not get another chance if you wait.
Mfs always wait until election time to say they’ll do cool stuff then never fucking do it.
You might notice that Kamala Harris is not in fact Joe Biden. Even if she wants to do it, that doesn’t mean she can make Joe do it.
Normalize personal freedom again. If you don’t have personal freedoms you ain’t free in the least. Fuck all cops and the idea you can control me. Fuck you! I do what I want!